Tuesday, March 23, 2010

On Monday the boys started to cough and have runny noses, but I thought it could be from allergies since we spent all weekend outside. Last night and this morning it became obvious that they were both actually sick so I made an appointment for them with the pediatrician for 9:30am. I gave them both a breathing treatment around 7:30am when they woke up and then we headed to the pediatrician around 9am.

The pediatrician first looked at Ryder and said he had some wheezing in his lungs and his throat was red. So they did a strep test (came back negative) along with a breathing treatment. His pules ox (measurement of how much oxygen is in the blood) was around 94 before the treatment and jumped up to 96 afterwards. His lungs sounds really good after the treatment. She sent him home with oral steroids for 5 days to try and help with his cough and prevent any infection and wants to see him back on Friday to make sure his lungs are doing good.

Then she moved on to Zak and I knew he was worse. You could hear his wheezing from another room so I knew his lungs were not doing well. She said his throat was red so they did a strep test which came back negative also. She also said his lungs were very congested and not moving air too well. His pulse ox was around 94 and his respiratory rate was very fast. After his first breathing treatment his pulse ox actually went down to 90 which she said was normal. The medication loosened all the junk which actually made it harder for him to breathe. So they did a second breathing treatment for him. After that the pediatrician said his lungs sounded much better, but he still had lots of junk in there. They couldn't get his pulse ox above 91-92 and usually they send kids to the hospital if it is below 92, but they felt we knew what signs to look for along with the fact that we have a nebulizer at home so they sent him home. We did have to go and get a chest x-ray on the way home which showed he has pneumonia. So he is on oral steroids for 5 days, antibiotics for 10 days and breathing treatments every 4 hours. We take him back tomorrow to check his lungs and pulse ox. If the pulse ox is still low then we will more than likely end up in the hospital.

It has only been about 2 weeks since the last illness! Ryder had pneumonia and Zak had Roseola at that time. When we go back tomorrow I am going to ask if she thinks any of this could have to do with allergies. I know allergies can cause asthma to act up so I want to see if we should start the boys on some sort of allergy medication to try and prevent more breathing issues.

Over the weekend we picked up the boys' old exersaucer from Chelley since Maddie is no longer using it. It has been sitting in the living room and tonight the boys wanted to play in it. So Ben set it up which led to a fight. So Ben went to the basement and brought up their old bouncy seat also...

We told Zak it was bedtime so he laid his head down and pretended to go to sleep!